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S03.E04: 12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis

AnimeMania

By AnimeMania
in Yellowjackets

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Brn2bwild

Brn2bwild

Did I miss something about why Shauna hated Coach Ben so much?  Other than that he wasn't there to help her during delivery and he was horrified by their cannibalism?  She above the others seemed determined that he should die.

Melissa in the past timeline seems unhinged, so I can definitely see her taking revenge on Shauna in the present.

I don't think Shauna killed Lottie in the present, but I could see Callie putting two and two together and thinking Shauna killed her because they were both in New York.

  • Like 4
Thalia

Thalia

(edited)

I started this last night and picked it back up this afternoon and just finished.   In my opinion at least this was the best episode of the season and for the first time in two weeks I can't wait to see what happens next.  

Last night I stayed up until after midnight ET because of the speculation over whether the group's Gilligan's Island Resort was real or some kind of group psychosis, and someone had questioned what Ben would see.   Turns out they really did build the nice straw huts and Elly May Akila had happy woodland creates to love and stroke and eventually butcher and eat.   But I went back and looked at episode one again and everything was a tad nicer and cleaner and prettier -- including the girls.  However, that was probably because, with the exception of Shauna, they were getting ready for their Wilderness party that evening. 

The trial was much more interesting than I thought it would be and it was definitely Coach Ben's best episode.   His testimony was really compelling and Misty is wasted as a nurse.   

The Personal Injury Bar is missing a star!  1-800-Call Misty Billboards would be everywhere.  

I love Jeff more and more every episode.  He was so funny and sweet with the residents.  Also with the idea that he could find the same cat.  I thought it was odd when he emphasized "You went to NYC?" to get the cat, but now know it was make sure he knew and we knew that she was in the area where Lottie apparently died.  

But I'm not sure that either Tai or Shauna killed Lottie, although both had a motive.  They certainly are building Melissa's character up in the 90s, and Shauna does have someone following her around.   Re:  Melissa

Spoiler

The pre-show previews showed Hillary Swank will be in the show at some point.  I feeI like I read where the showrunners said she wouldn't be a Yellowjacket but even if I did, I can see Swank as a grownup version of the actress playing Melissa.  

Did I miss Travis being drunk? 

Edited by Thalia
  • Like 4
BitterApple

BitterApple

(edited)
25 minutes ago, Anela said:

I'm disappointed in the way they've treated Lottie. 

I'm assuming the writers know where they're going with the adult timeline, but to me, it felt like Lottie's death was a tad premature. We barely scratched the surface on why she's interested in Callie, and then boom!, she's dead. I am curious as to who Lottie was planning to meet when she was rehearsing her apology in the mirror. I wonder, are we going to get flashbacks, or is this it, the character is done? 

It'll be interesting to see how Shauna reacts. That's twice now that she's kicked a friend out of the house only for them to end up dead. 

Jeff charming the pants off the seniors was hilarious. 

The actor playing Ben has given two magnificent back-to-back performances. I'm trying to come up with a scenario where the girls let him live, but it's not looking good. It pissed me off that the guilty verdict came after Shauna bullied everyone into it. I also don't understand why nobody brought up the fact that Ben saved Van, Shauna and Akilah from the poison gas in the cave. It would've been a checkmark in his favor that he didn't want the girls dead. 

Edited by BitterApple
  • Like 7
Thalia

Thalia

1 hour ago, Brn2bwild said:

Did I miss something about why Shauna hated Coach Ben so much?  Other than that he wasn't there to help her during delivery and he was horrified by their cannibalism?

Altho Mari is the complainer and Designated Bitch among the girls, Shauna seems the most enraged over their situation.   And with the exception of Travis, she has suffered the most traumatic losses of the group -- Jackie and the baby.   Maybe it is as simple as she needs someone to blame for everything?   

Ben was the authority figure of the group and despite the fact that the girls quickly started ignoring his orders, the part of Shauna that is still a young girl may find it easy to focus on the adult who didn't save her baby.  

I don't believe they said what the penalty would be if Ben was "convicted of his crimes."  Hopefully it won't be death, but I am not sure how they can put him in "jail" that is any worse than what he's already living through.  If they still believe that the Wilderness Chooses, theoretically he shouldn't be first up to be turned into Coq au Ben.  Cornish Game Ben? 

  • Like 5
WaltersHair

WaltersHair

I love Coach. I'm trying to think of another situation where your life depended on defending getting stuck in a dead end job. Almost everyone faces that dilemma at one time or another, and Shauna, of all people, is seeing that now as an adult with herself and her husband. Jeff can do no wrong, however.

The golden atmosphere ruined some of the drama of the trial for me. Almost everything else over the seasons has used dark or harsh lighting to accentuate the situation. I guess it could have worked if the area was a little more intimate.

I think a few things are going on in the adult timeline that are not related, though they seem to be related. I think the targeting of Shauna is different from Lottie's death. They made a point of showing Lottie going to a bank for money and she took everyone's money when they entered her cult. Lots of suspects there. Shauna's feels more personal.

Never thought I'd like Misty Effing Quigley.

  • Like 6
Anela

Anela

Lisa comes up in talk on reddit, every so often. The girl that Natalie bonded with, at Lottie's cult. 

I don't know if Shauna would go out of her way to murder Lottie like that. I doubt that Tai or Van would have, either. I can't believe Van entertained Tai for that long, when it came to killing a stranger. They've done a 180 with her, too. She seemed into it, at the end of season two, and now she's the voice of reason. 

 

  • Like 4
Brn2bwild

Brn2bwild

(edited)

As an aside, I enjoy watching Van and Tai in both timelines, but it feels like watching two separate couples.  I have trouble reconciling smug, self-serious Younger Tai with the more irreverent, slightly goofier Older Tai from this season.  Same with strong, impassioned Younger Van and more delicate Older Van.*  I realize some of this is about showing the gap between the younger version and the older version and how they got there, but I have no problem making the connection between Younger and Older Nat or Younger and Older Misty.  Older and Younger Shauna seemed more separate too, but this season they seem more connected.  

* Lauren Ambrose has a stronger physical resemblance to Liv Hewson, but IMO the absolute perfect casting for Older Van would have been Sarah Snook.  

Edited by Brn2bwild
  • Like 4
JenE4

JenE4

(edited)
17 hours ago, Brn2bwild said:

Did I miss something about why Shauna hated Coach Ben so much?  Other than that he wasn't there to help her during delivery and he was horrified by their cannibalism?  She above the others seemed determined that he should die.

Melissa in the past timeline seems unhinged, so I can definitely see her taking revenge on Shauna in the present.

I don't think Shauna killed Lottie in the present, but I could see Callie putting two and two together and thinking Shauna killed her because they were both in New York.

Granted, I kept dozing off, so I know I missed parts of the show. But I wonder whether Shauna goaded the group into voting guilty because Misty had a pretty compelling reason why she might be guilty. Better to get them all decided on Coach’s guilt before they start thinking too much about how Shauna was the one who detected the fire and woke them all up and played the hero. Now, I tend to think that Coach Ben was guilty because they had a scene of him standing on the porch next to the door holding an axe staring at the cabin, right before the next scene of the fire. Yet, Shauna’s actions could be read as someone trying to cast blame to save themselves. Or…she just realized they would be voting all night unless someone tried to sway people into changing their votes. Yet, it was odd that the votes were in reaction to her, rather than evaluating the evidence. But maybe this is just another ploy to be the leader if she can get 2/3 of the girls to follow her directives.

Since I dozed off, did we see Van and Tai kill that man, or are we to assume they followed him to his apartment *bad things happened* and then they had a celebratory pretzel and carriage ride? I think it’s bonkers that the adults are suddenly killing for The Wilderness. But I think this is more evidence that it’s psychological—or really, religious—not mystical. We’re watching a religion being created in real time. It’s no different from early peoples fighting against the elements and sacrificing to their gods for rains to come. To support their superstition/religion, they’re reading meaning into everything—even today. I liked how they even showed Shauna’s husband on a smaller scale buying into the karma—do good things for good things to happen vs the girls killing to stay alive. It was a nice parallel to show how it’s not necessarily an uncommon way of thinking and it typically has the best of intentions—but it can go waaaaay off the rails once you start hunting down humans to take a life to keep your life. Meanwhile Shauna is taking a shortcut swapping out a cat. I think that’s similar to Ben—doesn’t really matter whether it’s the same cat or Ben actually started the fire, as long as we have a stand-in to take on the karma, whether it’s meant for them or not. This was different from Van and Tai making sure they followed the card; It decides, not them.

ETA: I think we’re never going to get a clear answer on “the spiritual mysteries” in terms of science vs supernatural because it’s really about religion. So there’s always going to be that speculation of blind faith vs lack of proof. There might be a scientific explanation such as the gasses but also the other side of the coin with the shared vision. Are you a true believer like Lottie or a skeptic? These girls are just clinging to whatever they can to survive. It’s interesting that they all moved away from these beliefs once they returned home, but suddenly they’re going back to the rituals—the Wilderness, their god, has followed them back home. Now, for an atheist/agnostic like me, I view this as all in their heads, a religion and set of rituals of their own making, born out of a way to survive. But for someone who is religious in their own life, I’m curious whether this is more proof of the mystical because if your god is everywhere, of course their god is. Or, am I the only one viewing it this way?

Edited by JenE4
  • Like 4
Black Knight

Black Knight

(edited)
2 hours ago, JenE4 said:

Since I dozed off, did we see Van and Tai kill that man, or are we to assume they followed him to his apartment *bad things happened* and then they had a celebratory pretzel and carriage ride?

Van talked Tai out of it once they were at his door. I was a little suspicious that since Tai told Van to meet her in an hour, she might have gone in and killed him, but when Van's hand started shaking later and I saw Tai's reaction then (no tinge of "WTF? I just killed someone to keep you healthy, why didn't it work?"), I knew the guy was still alive. For now, anyway.

Oh, this episode was intense. I saw a vague headline spoiler about a major death and went in assuming that this was it for Ben. I was really mourning him after Steven Kreuger's awesome monologue...and then it turned out to be Adult Lottie! Holy shit! I don't have any theories yet on who killed her, but I'd really like to know what she was doing at the bank.

16 hours ago, WaltersHair said:

The golden atmosphere ruined some of the drama of the trial for me. Almost everything else over the seasons has used dark or harsh lighting to accentuate the situation.

I believe they're going for a Midsommar effect for this summer. It's working for me. I found it creepy to have this trial taking place in this atmosphere. The dark/harsh lighting of winter makes everything terrible seem more commonplace in a way. Like bad things are supposed to happen in winter, but now we're seeing that summer wasn't all sweetness and light either.

Never did I think I would root so hard for Teen Misty. And again, Steven Kreuger just killed that monologue. I especially liked how Ben was genuinely emotional but also quite crafty - it reminded me of the clever way he manipulated Misty in S1 so that she wouldn't poison him again. He had listened to Misty's point about not saying certain kinds of shit. In his own way, he does know how to survive.

I was really surprised there was no cross-examination of Ben by Tai. I had such dread when he finished his testimony for Misty that Tai was going to get up and destroy him. I guess the show wanted Shauna to be the driving force.

I was so happy to see Jackie in this episode too, and her scene with Shauna in the freezer was amazing. Shauna/Jackie scenes have always been among the show's best.

What a beautiful cat Shauna found - I was kinda hoping the Sadeckis would decide to keep the kitty so we could see it again, but given that bad things tend to happen to animals on this show, it's for the best.

I'm going to have to rewatch soon...so much to process.

Edited by Black Knight
  • Like 3
Black Knight

Black Knight

(edited)

Of course, the interesting thing about that is that Jackie isn't a real ghost, but a manifestation of Shauna's mind. So Shauna has some semblance of a conscience. Not much, though. I liked when "Jackie" said something about still being the most interesting thing about Shauna. Maybe during Shauna's time in the woods, she felt like she was starting not to be overshadowed, especially with Melissa encouraging her on all Lady Macbeth-ish, but when she came back she settled into a boring life. So being boring is still a real fear of hers.

That reminds me of a key line, the one about what they did out there and what they did when they got back. So they didn't just agree to stay quiet and go on to live regular lives, they did another bad thing. I've already seen speculation that they murdered another survivor who did want to talk, but I think this also could possibly be in support of the theory I've always liked that they left someone behind in the woods. I want that to be the case so much because the thought of someone having still been out there is just so deliciously chilling.

Edited by Black Knight

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